Tria Chang – I Was Once in Love

Tria Chang’s poem, I Was Once in Love, talks about the possibilities and pitfalls of relationships and how things can so easily slip out of balance. We might be too big or too small and need to withdraw in order to understand what it feels to be in this very place, looking through one’s own eyes.

I Was Once In Love

I once loved a man who made me feel
as big as the earth,
as all-encompassing as the sky: 

I was all he could see.

But what woman wants to feel
larger than a tree
larger than the ocean
larger than
her man. 

So I fell in love
with a man who made me feel tiny:
fragile in his big arms
fracturable in his embrace
miniscule
in his
grand world. 

But what woman wants to feel
so easy
to overlook
so easy
to cast aside. 

I am not in love, anymore.

I float
Untethered
Incomparable
Looking only through my eyes.

I look to the sun 
to tell me that I’m warm.
I look to my pain
to feel that I’m alive.
I write these words
to show me that I’m here.

And what woman 
wouldn’t want to be 
Here.
Exactly
Here.